With over two million IDPs seeking refuge in camps and host communities, the situation has grown even direr due to the worsening conditions they endure in their temporary shelters.
The suffering extends across all age groups, from deprived children and youths lacking basic amenities and educational opportunities to expectant mothers resorting to using toilets as delivery rooms. To exacerbate matters, the IDP camps are facing the outbreak of unfamiliar illnesses, presenting a grim picture of abandonment and neglect.
Recently, unsettling reports emerged from one of the camps situated in Agagbe, a secluded community within the Gwer West Local Government Area of the state.
Pregnant women and their partners, as well as victims of various illnesses, are grappling with dire circumstances. This revelation has left many in disbelief, as the IDPs seem stranded without comprehensive medical assistance and essential food supplies.
Shipinen Adoo, a 27-year-old mother from Tse-Atakpa village, Sengev Council Ward, shared her harrowing experience after losing her premature baby in the camp. "I became pregnant while in the IDP camp, and I struggled because we had no money to access medical treatment until a few days ago, when I gave birth to a dead premature baby boy. I have also not felt well since then," she recounted. This unfortunate situation echoes the predicament of many others facing urgent medical needs in the camp.
Ayoo Ngwa, 40, also stated the distressing circumstances he and his pregnant wife endured. "When my pregnant wife started noticing that she wanted to deliver her child, she was taken to a latrine for delivery.
Though not a healthy place, that is where most women in the camp are taken for delivery. That is what we are facing in the camp. Nobody cares about our situation. We have been abandoned to our fate," he lamented.
